Help for Calais refugees

Wildflowers at the Albion to raise funds for Calais refugees SUS-161102-142525001

Published:09:34Friday 19 February 2016

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Supporting desperate refugees being held in The Jungle is the heartfelt aim of Bristol band Wildflowers which is playing a series of gigs to raise cash for Care4Calais.

The tour will culminate with a show at the camp itself and all proceeds made along the way will be given directly to the charity.

The band reaches Hastings on Friday March 4 and will play at the Albion from 8pm.

Entry is free but there will be a collection for the charity on the night.

Lead singer Siddy Bennett was drawn to the cause through reading the blog of a friend who is volunteering in Calais for the past 5 months. She commented: “Her posts, filled with passion, anger, helplessness, kept niggling away at me. It is easy to feel immense sadness for the situation, but then kinda get on with your life.

When it was raining solidly in early January, and I was warm and cosy, I couldn’t stop thinking about everyone in ‘The Jungle’. As I watched the rain go on for days on end, I genuinely couldn’t bare the thought of the people suffering, so it was then I decided Wildflowers had to do something to help.”

As a result Wildfowers will hit the road and play a series of shows to raise money and awareness of the plight of the men, women and children who have survived perilous journeys of thousands of miles, fleeing persecution and war torn countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Syria.

“Recently more and more children are turning up, some of them without families, some people are shell-shocked from war, some are missing limbs. They get one meal a day, and sometimes there isn’t enough food.

We are fundraising to provide food, blankets, large tents and money that will go directly to the cause.

So please, come to our shows, enjoy the music, you can donate happily knowing that we will be taking money directly to the cause.”

Wildflowers were formed in Bristol in 2012 by Siddy and James Ashbury when they met at music school, it wasn’t long before the duo drew in Siddy’s sister Kit and the trio set forth with their distinctive brand of folk, country, pop and rock.

Within two years they found themselves at SXSW in Austin, Texas and their American dreams came true when they bagged a record deal with Detroit based label Original 1265 Recordings.

Since then Wildflowers have supported Robert Plant and Tom Odell amongst others. Their live shows belie their youth with exuberant performances and they have honed their songwriting skills making an album of twelve songs that are infectious, rousing classics.

New single ‘100 Personalities’ written by Siddy, is released on March 25 following their Race To Calais tour, and comes from the bands bebut album On the Inside, out on March 18, on Original 1265 Recordings.